So here’s some game design thoughts based on my discussion of DnD with Brer where I didn’t get my points across at all. (through not fault of his, I just… I don’t know. I’m so speaking from the heart more than from the brain sometimes with this stuff. It feels right this way, and I can’t tell you why sort of situation.)
One of the things I’ve been thinking about with DnD is the whole… complexity issue. As I was sitting there playing Neverwinter Nights 2, which I’m sure it already dumbed down some, I was feeling so clueless as to the system. Things would happen and I would just die and I would be staring at the screen wondering what the hell just happened. The problem is that to play DnD at all, you need to know the intricacies of higher-level play.
Now, consider many other games I play. For one, KoL. There is, most definitely, a high-level game in KoL, one of people trying to pull the best times and ascend with the least number of turns. Because I pay attention, like the game, and read stuff about the game, I know a lot, although probably not all, of these tricks. I never use them, though. I never worry about the quality of booze I’m drinking or if this skill I’m perming is actually going to cut down my number of turns. I just drink something to play more and pick a skill I think is fun. Seriously, if I was going for speed, the skills I have permed right now are completely wrong. From that perspective, me not having Pastamastery, Advanced Saucecrafting, and Advanced Cocktailcrafting is criminal. Double-fisted Skull Smashing does not help from that perspective. But dual-wielding is fun, so I picked that one up. I can play the game at a level less than high and still get enjoyment out of it.
I’ll also make an example of Magic. There is obviously a high-level game of Magic, and I feel like I know a thing or two about how I would try to put together a high-level deck if I really want to. But I never want to. Those decks are boring to me, because they’re all about efficiency. I don’t get to do cool, retarded tricks and shit with them. So I build my silly little Johnny decks, and if they work well, awesome, and if not, I still have fun trying to pull off my little weird things. Hell, someone can play the game really simply as a game of people smashing monsters into each other, and it works just fine that way.
The point is, I don’t have to have a knowledge of high-level mechanics to enjoy these games. In DnD, I feel like I can’t. In Mask of the Betrayer, there is so much shit going on in a combat that I have no idea what half of it is, and that half is important. That half is all these buffs and debuffs that are keeping me from stabbing people in the face with my spear. I don’t know what they are or how to deal with them. Things just happen so quick. I suppose part of that is me needing to pause the game more, but… it just bothers me that it’s designed like that. It’s set up to create a sort of elitist structure.
There are other things, too, that bother me, but these I feel are more just decisions and I feel are more on the “personal preference” side of things, so I’m letting you know I’m not presenting them as fact.
One is all these calculations. I really don’t get the appeal. There is such a wide variety of roles and outcomes and factors in the game, and it just seems ridiculous to me. If I attack a monster in Arkham Horror, I look at my will and pick up that many dice, then look at the modifier and subtract that many die, then roll for a horror check. If I get a 5 or a 6, I don’t take sanity loss. Then I pick up dice equal to my Fight + my weapons – the modifier on the monster, and roll. If I get enough 5 or 6s to equal his life, I win. If not, I take damage and have to attack again. Now, there is a bit of calculation involved, sure, but it’s all with the number of dice, something you can physically sort of sort out. You can pick up five dice that equals your will and then put two back on the table for the modifier. It’s simple stuff. And to me, there is nothing there that is less thrilling than rolling something with complex calculations of damage resistance and this and that in DnD. The thrill comes from throwing the dice and not knowing what will come up? Will you have an overwhelming success? Barely edge by? A crushing defeat? You don’t need complex calculations to get that thrill. It’s basically built-in to the mechanics of dice-rolling. So why do all the crazy stuff with many different sided die? I really don’t know.
Another thing is the fact that the more I learn about this game, the less about actually role-playing this game is. The appeal of tabletop RPGs is, for me, to sit down with a lot of friends and improv and act out a character. I guess I was pretty strongly affected by Kill Puppies for Satan and all of his thoughts on RPGs in general. That’s the experience I want if I’m going to sit down and play, and DnD is completely not going to give that to me. Or if it is, I’m probably going to be ignoring a lot of what makes DnD what it is. DnD is all those calculations and complex damage models. That just seems so boring. I want a computer to do that (to which you say “But you have Neverwinter Nights 2 to do all that for you!” to which I say “Well, yeah… that’s why I bought it. Other factors kept me from liking it, though.”)
Anyway, these are just some thoughts I wanted to get out of my head… please let me know what you think of them, if you’d like. It’s time to clean up and go to lunch now, though.
